The most virulent criticism of Episode I centered around the digital character of Jar Jar Binks, a clumsy amphibious Gungan who’s a sidekick to Anakin. Many viewers found him juvenile and annoying. Others likened him to the worst kind of Stepin Fetchit stereotype.

Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks comic strip (now syndicated in more than 250 papers), was among the fans counting the minutes until Episode I’s release. “Watching Star Wars is my first conscious memory,” he says. “I was three years old. Star Wars has always had a tremendous impact on everything that I do, not just creatively, but on the way I construct right and wrong.” He was outright offended by Jar Jar’s broken English, bugged-out eyes, and herky-jerky shuffle.

“I couldn’t believe [Lucas] was going there!” says McGruder, who did a number of strips that reflected his disillusionment. “If you have any knowledge of stereotypical and racist depictions in Hollywood, then you know what you’re doing is not acceptable. [Jar Jar is] scared of every goddamn thing. He’s a clown. It’s profoundly racist.”

Samuel L. Jackson disagrees. “Irritating? Yes. Offensive? No,” he says. “I think if the man inside of Jar Jar hadn’t been black, it wouldn’t have been an issue.”

That man—Ahmed Best, who voices Jar Jar and acts out his movements for the animators—is a fan of McGruder’s work but says, “I reject his implications that I am doing something to diminish myself and the fact that I am proud of being black. When George and I first started talking about this, he told me to check out Buster Keaton films. His son spoke like Jar Jar at that age, four or five. And George wanted the character to have a childlike innocence. I had no idea it was going to be perceived that way.” After the movie’s release, when the fans were in full Jar Jar–vilification mode, he got a supportive call from Lucas. “He was like, ‘This happened when [the first Star Wars] came out,’ because they thought Chewbacca was black. The NAACP was like, ‘Why can’t you put any black people in Star Wars?’ [People asked] ‘Why does James Earl Jones have to be the voice of the evil guy?’ ”

“George isn’t racist,” says director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Shaft), who knows Lucas well. “Jar Jar is sort of like Bullwinkle. He was a Gungan; he wasn’t a brother. People are putting their own spin on it.”

Jar Jar returns in Episode II, but now he’s matured into the senator from Naboo. He’s certainly not the character that will bring a fan like McGruder back, however. “I met Sam [Jackson] the day after I saw [Episode I],” he says, “and I was thinking, ‘This is the greatest thrill of my life. I’m meeting the black Jedi.’ So, yeah, I’ve got to see Sam.”